Branner Blog

An effort to create an early warning earthquake system for the Bay Area is highlighted in today’s San Jose Mercury News. The warning system would be activated when a series of monitoring systems detected the faster moving P-waves from a quake. The computer could estimate the expected magnitude of the quake and send out a warning. For example, in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, those living in Redwood City would have received 10 seconds’ warning while those in San Francisco 20 seconds’ warning. The system is expensive and scientists across California are debating its value.

This is still quite new, but from an initial glance, the Encyclopedia of Earth looks pretty interesting. The EoE is intended to be the wikipedia for the earth and environmental sciences, but with restricted access and oversight. The premise is that although the Internet is great, it’s also vast and unreliable. The EoE on the other hand, promises to be something of an antidote (as we hope to be here at Brannerblog as well).

Some details from the site:
“The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other’s work.”

“digital information on the environment is characterized by an abundance of “great piles of content” and a dearth of “piles of great content.” In other words, there are many resources for environmental content, but there is no central repository of authoritative information that meets the needs of diverse user communities. Our goal is to make the Encyclopedia of Earth the largest reliable information resource on the environment in history.”

See the about page for even more.

It’s an interesting idea. I have some initial critiques (like: limited searching capability–why no advanced search?), but I’m going to temper them until I’ve had more time to play with it.

You can now access the Branner Library website by directing your browser to “brannerlib” or “brannerlibrary” if you’re on campus, brannerlib.stanford.edu or brannerlibrary.stanford.edu, if you’re off. They’ll take you to the same place, but we hope these new options are a bit easier to remember than the clunkier http://library.stanford.edu/depts/branner/.

a few items of note from today’s headlines.

An interdisciplinary group at MIT has released a report in mid-March on the future of coal and “evaluates the technologies and costs associated with the generation of electricity from coal along with those associated with the capture and sequestration of the carbon dioxide produced coal-based power generation. Growing electricity demand in the U.S. and in the world will require increases in all generation options (renewables, coal, and nuclear) in addition to increased efficiency and conservation in its use.” The full report is available on the MIT Website.

Have you wondered when AGU was going to digitize its pre-1994 back issues? They are in the process of doing that very task and expect to complete the digitization by late 2007. Details from their site below:

“We have assembled a preview for AGU member subscribers of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) and Member Journal Library. The preview contains digitized material going back to 1974, volume 1; the remaining volumes will come into the preview by the end of April 2007. The current preview is in the beta stage and does not include linked references or the option for single articles sales, which will be available when the library is complete.”

If you are a member, check out the GRL offerings and feel free to send us your thoughts or give feedback to AGU directly.

The Wall Street Journal reports today of the heavy use of old geology maps of the Congo created during the years when the country was run by the Belgian colonial government. The detailed maps are being used by a variety of companies eager to mine the country’s rich supplies of copper, cobalt, and gold. The article is available through the ABI/INFORM database.
(”Why Miners Look For Buried Treasure In Belgian Museum Legacy of King
Leopold II, Its Maps and Rocks Direct Firms to Congo Hot Spots.” By JOHN W.
MILLER, Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2007 11:14 p.m.; Page A1.)

Use your .edu email address to gain free access to the New York Times TimesSelect as of March 13th. With TimesSelect you can read NYT’s Op-ed and news columnists as well as other features.

Go to this link, enter your .edu email address. Wait for the verification email and click the link within it. You’ll need to fill out minimal information including the university’s name, your status (student or faculty), graduation date (I was able to register as “faculty” without entering a date), and email preferences should you choose to receive the content that way. Quite fast and easy.

Read more about the offer at Editor & Publisher.

The 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth will be held at UC Berkeley, June 5-9, 2007.

From the symposium website:
“The five day gathering will feature world-class representatives from industry, academia, government, and NGOs who have come from around the globe to highlight a central theme regarding shared interest in the concept of a digital Earth.”

Learn more about the concept of the Digital Earth and register for the conference: http://www.isde5.org/

There were two earthquakes last night, one at about 8:40 pm centered near Lafayette and one at 1:30 am near Healdsburg. Did you feel either one? If so, you can record your experience with the USGS. Point your browser to the shake map and report when and how you felt the earthquake.

Whenever you feel some shaking, click the link above and help the USGS as well as local authorities learn about and prepare for earthquakes in our region.